Warning! If you perform this step, you will unlock the boot loader. This may void your warranty and/or any warranty from your operator. If you still want to unlock the boot loader of your phone, enter fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce oem unlock 0xKEY, where KEY is the unlock boot loader key you got in the beginning of this instruction. The boot loader should now be successfully unlocked.

For most issues/problems, unlocking the bootloader voids the warranty. Sony Mobile only honors the warranty if it is a known issue in that model/batch of phones or if it is an issue that clearly could not have been caused by flashing a different ROM. Because a new ROM can have a wide range of consequences (e.g., it can overheat the battery or change the voltage, which can damage other components), that basically means that only a small subset of issues are still covered by the warranty. Therefore, even when the phone is in warranty, the service center usually has to do a very costly board swap in order to get the phone back to its original state before it can perform any repair. The end-user has to pay for that part of the repair.

We are proud of providing the unlock feature to the developer community. Previously, there was a large risk of bricking the phone when unlocking with third party software. Sony Mobile’s solution remove’s that risk. When we initially provided the unlock feature, it was presumed that only highly skilled developers and super-users would take advantage of it. From blogs and discussion boards, it was clear that the community understood the risks and that unlocking largely voided the warranty. It appears that less sophisticated users (despite all our warnings) might be using the feature, and are now surprised by the consequences.

13) On Device write the model [ex. Xperia Neo V (MT11i)], on Version write the firmware version and/or the Android version [ex. 4.1.A.0.562 (ICS_4.0.3)], on Branding write the region and your name if you wish.